Date: October 12, 2011
Source: News Room
A Minnesota-based company has struck a deal with Hennepin County to take a portion of its waste stream and convert it into diesel fuel. Under the agreement, the company, Rational Energies, LLC (Eden Prairie), will lease space at the county's Brooklyn Park Transfer Station and have access to the 110,000 tons of municipal solid waste it receives each year. Rational Energies plans to recycle 8,000 tons of metal and plastic and convert 14,000 tons of plastic into diesel fuel. The company says that it employs a pyrolysis conversion process that produces a high quality fuel economically, without government subsidy, and the fuel can run in ordinary diesel engines.
The new sorting process will help the county meet the new goal of a 45-percent recycling rate by 2015. This project also will reduce the county's cost to transport and dispose of that waste by $1.1 million a year. A revenue-sharing provision enables the county to receive 30 percent of revenue derived from the sale of recyclables if at least 8,000 tons of plastic and metal have been separated for recycling.
The company has also signed a similar deal with Manatee County in Florida to construct a similar recycling and waste-to-fuel conversion facility in the Bradenton area.
FROM HENNEPIN COUNTY WEBSITE:
Plastic and Metal Recycling Agreement
September 14, 2011 - The County Board has approved agreements with Rational Energies HC, Inc., to lease them space at the county's Brooklyn Park Transfer Station (BPTS) and enable them to separate and recover metal and plastic recyclable materials from incoming municipal solid waste.
Rational Energies is a Delaware corporation based in Minnesota that was established in 2007 to produce and market fuel made from materials recovered from waste. Rational will recycle the metal and PETE plastic (bottles and jugs marked #1), bale them and transport them to a recycling facility. The remaining #2 and #7 plastic materials will be baled and transported to a location in Plymouth, where it will undergo a liquefaction process known as pyrolysis, which creates a fuel.
The BPTS will receive approximately 110,000 tons of waste next year, and Rational expects to recycle 8,000 tons of metal and plastic and convert 14,000 tons of plastic into fuel. This new sorting process will help the county meet the new goal of a 45-percent recycling rate by 2015. This project also will reduce the county's cost to transport and dispose of that waste by $1.1 million a year.
Rational will install, at its own expense, the office and production equipment needed for the sorting, including a loading dock to ship the recovered materials to market or further processing. Once the facility is operational, Rational will work with the county to determine if organic waste could be separated for recycling into compost, and if a similar metal/plastic sorting operation is possible at the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center in downtown Minneapolis.
The agreement with Rational requires the company to hire staff from community-based social-service organizations that find permanent employment for hard-to-employ workers. The company expects to hire 12 to 15 employees.
Rational will pay the county a fixed annual fee of $900,000 annually to access the waste for sorting purposes. A revenue-sharing provision enables the county to receive 30 percent of revenue derived from the sale of recyclables if at least 8,000 tons of plastic and metal have been separated for recycling.
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